Why is certified renewable electricity so important?

Blog

Posted on: 25/01/2017

Last week, SmartestEnergy launched the UK’s first certified 100% renewable electricity supply product. Head of Marketing and leader of the product’s development, Mike Shirley, explains why this is such an important milestone for the industry.

Many of the UK’s biggest companies are now choosing to be supplied with renewable electricity. This increased demand for clean energy is good news for the planet, for renewable generators, and for the consumers that buy from these brands.

But there is only a finite amount of renewable electricity generated in the UK - 78million megawatt hours in 2015, compared to 170million megawatt hours consumed overall - so how can companies be sure they are actually being supplied from renewable sources? How can they be sure their supplier is correctly allocating origin certificates to their supply?

Independent certification removes this uncertainty by bringing in an expert third party to review the supplier’s processes and ensure they are doing the right thing.

It means the customer can trust that every megawatt hour they use has come from renewable sources backed with UK-recognised origin certificates - without just taking the supplier’s word for it.

It also means customers, and the auditors who sign off their non-financial reporting, can be completely confident in the carbon emissions of their electricity supply.

We have gone through the process of having our renewable electricity supply certified by the Carbon Trust because we think it’s really important to provide customers with complete clarity of what they are being supplied with.

With sustainability reports now scrutinised at the same level as financial reporting, we want our customers to feel completely confident in the emissions information we provide them. With our certification, they can confidently report zero emissions when reporting using the market-based method in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 Guidance.

We are proud to be the first supplier in the UK to offer certified renewable electricity. While other suppliers provide renewable electricity, none have gone to the lengths we have to validate their processes for certificate allocation.

We have already received great feedback from the market on our new product and hope it continues to drive transparency and increase the uptake of renewable electricity. if you have any feedback or comments, I would love to hear them so please get in touch.